Hello Sony, stuff missing in the PRS-505

[LOL2005]

I have been intensively using the Sony reader the last two weeks. The device is great but Sony could make it even better.

I would suggest them the following enhancements


Hardware:
* make it a bit lighter (low priority)
* improve the screen (High priority), Vizplex is good but there is still room for improvement
* improve the device speed (medium priority)
* improve the buttons (medium priority), I think we need to press just a bit harder than we should to turn pages. Please keep the two wheels for those of us who turn pages with the left hand

Software
* Add multi language support (French, Spanish, German, Russian...) - (medium priority)

* Add more formats
- HTML(High priority)
- Epub (High priority)

* Add support for dictionary(ies) (super high priority)
2000+ books and no dictionary, it doesn't make sense

* Add possibility to change the screen orientation in the image menu option (we should not need to go back to the main option menu) - (medium priority)

* improve pdf support
- pdf background is darker than other format backgrounds. This is not good, please fix it (high priority). Thanks to www.feedbooks.com , a good pdf support is far from been useless in the reader
- Possibility to zoom in pdf (medium priority)

* Add the possibility to search in a document. (Medium priority)


*Add the possibility to change the font. (I like Arial not Times - (High priority)



Other enhancements:

Connect books, It should be possible to expand the reading area of Connect documents. We lose a lot of screen real estate with the useless margin around the text. The reading area is a bit two small to fully enjoy the reading experience. We should get 6' of reading area not 4'


Regarding pricing: $300 is a fair price for the device you get. I would compare the Sony Reader with the first generation Ipod. Increase functionalities, not the price


What did I miss?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by LOL2005

* improve the screen (High priority), Vizplex is good but there is still room for improvement

Sony can only use screen technologies which exist - they can't wave a magic wand and make a better screen appear out of thin air . VizPlex is currently as good as it gets with eInk.

* improve the device speed (medium priority)

It's a compromise between device speed and battery life. Would you be happy to see, say, a 30% reduction in battery life in return for improved speed?

Support for dictionary(ies) (super high priority)
2000+ books and no dictionary, it doesn't make sense

This must be a personal thing. I never use a dictionary when I read an English language book - do you read books with a dictionary at your elbow? How would you like to see dictionary support added, given that the Sony has no facility for selecting text or text input?

* Add possibility to change the screen orientation in the image menu option (we should not need to go back to the main option menu) - (medium priority)

On the 500, you can flip the screen orientation by holding down the "Size" button. Has this feature been removed from the 505?

he possibility to search in a document. (Medium priority)

How would you search, given the lack of text input and a touch screen? How would you actually enter the text, I mean?

e possibility to change the font. (I like Arial not Times - (High priority)

The font is defined by the creator of the book. If you like Arial, you can create your own books which use Arial.

[LOL2005]

I do think dictionary support is essential. There are so many buttons on the reader I suppose Sony could find a clever way to make input text queries.

Ideally, the reader should be able to support several dictionaries (English, French, ...)


It is also possible to change font size so why not change the font all together? that would be a big plus.

[HarryT]

One of the benefits of the Sony Reader over, say, devices which use MobiPocket is that everything in a MobiPocket book is in the same font, whereas a Sony Reader book can use multiple fonts. The ability to use multiple fonts is, I think, associated with the "restriction" of the reader being unable to change the font.

[anotherchance]

Originally Posted by HarryT

On the 500, you can flip the screen orientation by holding down the "Size" button. Has this feature been removed from the 505?

No. It's there just the same. My "less informed" colleague who bought a Reader after me didn't realize you could do that. Nor did she know that holding the Menu button would take you up to the top level. I wish the Reader had come with a printed version of the manual. Its too easy NOT to be bothered to print one out, and reading it on the Reader is not great (especially cos you can't try things without leaving the manual you're reading)

[RWood]

Originally Posted by anotherchance

No. It's there just the same. My "less informed" colleague who bought a Reader after me didn't realize you could do that. Nor did she know that holding the Menu button would take you up to the top level. I wish the Reader had come with a printed version of the manual. Its too easy NOT to be bothered to print one out, and reading it on the Reader is not great (especially cos you can't try things without leaving the manual you're reading)

But the manual installs (at least my 500 installation did) on the hard disk so I could read it on the PC while I had the Reader in front of me.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by RWood

But the manual installs (at least my 500 installation did) on the hard disk so I could read it on the PC while I had the Reader in front of me.

You can install it off the CD for the 505 as well

[anotherchance]

Originally Posted by RWood

But the manual installs (at least my 500 installation did) on the hard disk so I could read it on the PC while I had the Reader in front of me.

Yeah I know. Ironic really. I got the Reader to avoid having to read things on a PC screen

[bowerbird]

harry said:
> One of the benefits of the Sony Reader over,
> say, devices which use MobiPocket is that
> everything in a MobiPocket book is in the same font,
> whereas a Sony Reader book can use multiple fonts.
> The ability to use multiple fonts is, I think,
> associated with the "restriction" of
> the reader being unable to change the font.

i'm wondering why you put "restriction" in quotes,
as if to imply that it's not _really_ a "restriction"...

it is.

as to the "benefit" of having multiple fonts, well...

to me, this just means that instead of having all the text
in the one font that i prefer, because i can read it best,
i have it in multiple fonts that i don't prefer because i
cannot read them best.

if that's a "benefit", you can keep it...

-bowerbird

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bowerbird

harry said:

i'm wondering why you put "restriction" in quotes,
as if to imply that it's not _really_ a "restriction"...

it is.

What I meant was that it's not clear to me how it would be practical to change fonts in a document which might contain several different fonts. ie which font would you change? The ability to change font seems to be associated, almost inevitably, with the requirement that a document only contain a single font. ie the inability to change font is, in a sense, due to the lack of the restriction that a document only contain one font.

as to the "benefit" of having multiple fonts, well...

to me, this just means that instead of having all the text
in the one font that i prefer, because i can read it best,
i have it in multiple fonts that i don't prefer because i
cannot read them best.

if that's a "benefit", you can keep it...

-bowerbird

There are many books in which it is advantageous to use different fonts. Eg, in a programming textbook, one would probably want to have the main text of the book in a proportional font, but the code listings in a monospaced font. The Reader can do that - MobiPocket can't.

[ArcherPDA]

Um...

1. User input RSS feeds !

2. User input RSS feeds !

3. User input RSS feeds !

4. User input RSS feeds !

5. User input RSS feeds !

Please! Now!

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What I meant was that it's not clear to me how it would be practical to change fonts in a document which might contain several different fonts. ie which font would you change? The ability to change font seems to be associated, almost inevitably, with the requirement that a document only contain a single font. ie the inability to change font is, in a sense, due to the lack of the restriction that a document only contain one font.



There are many books in which it is advantageous to use different fonts. Eg, in a programming textbook, one would probably want to have the main text of the book in a proportional font, but the code listings in a monospaced font. The Reader can do that - MobiPocket can't.

TYpically you do this by specifying alternate font families. For e.g. an alternate monospaced family or an alternate serif family etc.

[bkilian]

Originally Posted by LOL2005

I do think dictionary support is essential. There are so many buttons on the reader I suppose Sony could find a clever way to make input text queries.

Ideally, the reader should be able to support several dictionaries (English, French, ...)


It is also possible to change font size so why not change the font all together? that would be a big plus.

Essential? Really? How do you use your dictionary in a day-to-day environment? I actually haven't opened a dictionary in close to 10 years, so for me it would certainly not be essential.

[bowerbird]

harry said:
> The ability to change font seems to be associated,
> almost inevitably, with the requirement that
> a document only contain a single font.

even if that is the case, i do not think it's a bad thing.
i'd rather have everything in the one font that _i_ like
than in the two (or more) fonts that a _designer_ likes.

but i don't necessarily think it's the case that we _must_
enforce such simplicity. any e-book viewer worth its salt
-- (and yes, quite sadly, there are _many_ that are not) --
should be aware of the _structural_ aspects of the book,
i.e., which parts of it are headers, which are block-quotes,
which are tables, and so on. and it should let an end-user
specify _how_ each structure is rendered (font, color, size).

note that this is quite different from mere "font families";
that's another way to do this, but i'd call it the wrong way.

this is my opinion. but this is the way i built _my_ viewer.

-bowerbird

[kovidgoyal]

A level of control where the user gets to specify font sizes of individual structural elements is simply out of place in a viewer. It woud make sense in an editor, but certainly not a viewer.